Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by frasersimons
The Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
4.0
Much improved over the first novel. This suffers a bit from a very slow start that is not as useful to show the arc of Gurgeh as I expected. It’s a stark contrast for his visit to the Empire, no doubt. But the first half grew very tiresome.
If you can stick it through that things get a lot more interesting. I have always been fascinated by the way language modifies and dictates behaviour, altering the way people think. And in this way, along with the stakes the book presents, this was a much more satisfying way to show this than a celebrates post-cyberpunk book, Snow Crash—which features a language virus.
I liked how Banks makes his case for systemic problems and oppression of the Empire, linking fairly well this alien culture with three sexes arranged in a similar way to the US and capitalism.
Overall it was fairly predictable but the character work from the first book to this is 100% improved. While this character also served as a lens and viewpoint for the Culture as in the last, this one was far more believable and, as I said before, much more interesting.
If you can stick it through that things get a lot more interesting. I have always been fascinated by the way language modifies and dictates behaviour, altering the way people think. And in this way, along with the stakes the book presents, this was a much more satisfying way to show this than a celebrates post-cyberpunk book, Snow Crash—which features a language virus.
I liked how Banks makes his case for systemic problems and oppression of the Empire, linking fairly well this alien culture with three sexes arranged in a similar way to the US and capitalism.
Overall it was fairly predictable but the character work from the first book to this is 100% improved. While this character also served as a lens and viewpoint for the Culture as in the last, this one was far more believable and, as I said before, much more interesting.